The illusion of vision. It feels as though we open our eyes and just see what's out there, but the more we learn about the brain's visual system, the further it seems this is from the truth. Patients who can't see movement or recognize faces, reveal the tricks and short cuts the brain uses to construct an illusion of reality. Is the brain making up so much of what we think we're seeing that vision is really just dreaming with your eyes open?

What do we know about Google beside the fact it is the name of the world's most famous website? Meet the people in the Googleplex - the inventors, the managers, advisors and users.

Prof. Susan Greenfield (Univ. of Oxford) discusses what it is that makes humans different from the rest of the animal world. She focuses on the human ability to work towards long-term goals and observes the results of damage to the frontal lobe of the brain, which seems to be the location of this skill. But planning is not a uniquely human skill - chimpanzees in a study by the University of Georgia demonstrated that they too can do this. Humans, however, have developed language which accounts for the rapid development of our culture; but some scientists argue that chimps, too, are capable of acquiring language. There seems to be a missing link between chimpanzees and humans, indicated by the post-Neanderthal appearance of new kinds of tools indicating a development from modular mental ability to lateral thinking. Among those taking part in the programme are Dr. Adrian Owen (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge) and Prof. Michael Gazzaniga (Dartmouth College, New Hampshire U.S).

Born in Dvinsk, Russia (now Daugavpils, Latvia) Rothko moved with his family to Portland, Oregon in 1913. His painting education was brief - he moved to New York to study under the artist Max Weber and then struck out on his own. Rothko is known for his abstract expressionism paintings, but he moved through more traditional styles in his early career, including Surrealist paintings in the 1940s. In 1947 he embarked on the first of his large abstract 'colour-field' paintings, formalising their structure further in the 1950s. Rothko had huge success with largescale solo shows, but committed suicide in 1970.

The American icon behind the Guggenheim museum, Fallingwater and his own home, Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright became the greatest architect of the 20th century - not only because of his magnificent talent but because he was a master showman and self-publicist. The sheer scale of Lloyd Wright's career - over 450 buildings in 70 years - is astonishing in itself but there is much more to his story than the romantic myth his autobiography revealed. This BBC documentary explores Lloyd Wright's visionary works and reveals how his life was beset with periods of devastating critical derision, financial chaos, scandal, and a violent but little-known murder.

This episode: Peter Owen Jones continues his year long religious odyssey with a gruelling journey exploring the spiritual traditions of Africa. Peter sets off hoping to get a glimpse of man's first experience of the divine. His journey begins with the ancient practice of Voodoo in Benin, where he is confronted by ritual practices that contradict his own deeply held religious convictions. He is forced to decide whether he should even take part. In the continent where all human life began, Peter travels to Botswana to meet the San Bushmen, inheritors of the earliest religious faith on earth. In South Africa he discovers surprising new developments in religious belief when he meets the members of the 12th Apostolic Church and finds Afrikaners who believe the world is about to come to an end. In Ethiopia he finds a group of one of the world's youngest religions - Rastafarians - who have set up a Utopian community in this harsh and unforgiving land. His journey reaches its emotional conclusion in the highlands of northern Ethiopia where members of Africa's oldest Christian church have gathered. Faith 21: Voodoo – Mamywata: Benin fishermen in Cotonou perform ritual to serpent goddess Mamywata. -- Faith 22: Voodoo – Gris Gris: Visits the fetish market in Cotonou, Benin to see various dead animal parts. Practitioners claim these heal common ailments. -- Faith 24: San Trance Dance: San Bushmen from near Ghanzi, Botswana, perform a trance dance and reflect on modern encroachments on their religious practice. -- Faith 25: Zulu Sangomas: Visits a Zulu Sangoma in Johannesburg, South Africa to contact the spirit of the ancestors. -- Faith 26: Twelfth Apostolic Church: Witnesses an outdoor prayer meeting in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa, where rituals involving healing and protection through the intercession of the Holy Spirit are key. -- Faith 27: Afrikaner Calvinism: Attends a prayer meeting at home in Groot Marico, South Africa where worshippers believe the world will end by 2020. -- Faith 28: Rastafari: Visits a community of Jamaicans, four hours drive from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia who believe Haile Selassie I is their messiah and that they are now in Zion. -- Faith 29: Ethiopian Islam: Visits a tearoom beside a mosque in Negash, Tigray, Ethiopia to chew khat. -- Faith 30: Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity: Witnesses a church service for the feast of St Michael at the Church of Mikael Imba, Tigray, Ethiopia and is moved to tears by the warmth of human love he witnesses. [Info from Wikipedia entry]

This episode: In the fifth episode Pete discovers a dangerous side to the Bible Belt when he gets too close to the serpent handlers in the Appalachian mountains, before taking his seat at a table-tipping séance. He continues to challenge his own faith when he comes face to face with a miracle-working evangelist and a boy preacher. In Utah he visits the heartland of Mormonism and ventures into the wilderness to seek out religious outlaws who practice polygamy. Pete experiences a traditional Navajo sweat lodge and visits a sect where mummification is alive and well. His journey across the most religiously diverse country in the world reaches an explosive climax in Nevada when he joins fifty thousand revellers to witness a ceremonial burning. Faith 40: Snake handling: Witnesses a prayer meeting involving holding venomous snakes at the Edwina Church of God in Jesus Christ's Name, Newport, Tennessee. -- Faith 41: Baptist preacher prodigy: Attends a prayer meeting conducted by 10 year old minister Jared Sawyer at the Greater Travelers' Rest Baptist Church, Decatur, Georgia. -- Faith 42: Evangelical revival: Witnesses a prayer meeting and a laying-on of hands at the Ignited Church, Lakeland, Florida. -- Faith 43: Spiritualism: Attends a séance at the Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp, Cassadaga, Florida. -- Faith 44: Navajo sweat lodge: Joins members of the Navajo in a sweat lodge in the Arizona desert. -- Faith 45: Mormons: Discusses Mormon theology at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Salt Lake City, Utah. -- Faith 46: Religious polygamists: Interviews religious polygamists in St George, Utah who have broken with the LDS church over its attitude to polygamy. -- Faith 47: All Saints Episcopalian Church: Witnesses a same-sex marriage ceremony at the All Saints Episcopalian Church, Pasadena, California. -- Faith 48: Summum: Visits the Summum Pyramid in Salt Lake City, Utah. -- Faith 49: Burning Man festival: Attends the annual event in Black Rock Desert, northern Nevada. [Info from Wikipedia entry]

This episode: He finds a series of unexpected and surprising rituals and sects - huge underground New Age temples in Italy, shamans in Norway, and Europe's only Buddhist republic. Pete also discovers a darker side to faith in the tumultuous history of religion in Europe and finds that his own church was responsible for intolerance, persecution and death. This turns out to be a troubling and deeply personal journey for Pete. Faith 71: Norwegian Lutheran Church: Attends a Lutheran baptism at Sussjavri, Lapland, northern Norway -- Faith 72: Sami shamanism: Witnesses a spiritual invocation of ancestors (Yoik) at Vesterama Sami Camp, Lapland, northern Norway -- Faith 73: Judaism in Lithuania: Attends Shabbat prayers and meal in Vilnius, Lithuania -- Faith 74: Christianity: Visits the Hill of Crosses, 12 km north of Šiauliai, northern Lithuania -- Faith 75: Russian Orthodox Church: Attends the Feast of the Epiphany and Baptism of Christ at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Kropotkinskaya Square, Moscow, Russia, and an ice hole on Zhivopisnaya Street where worshippers swim in the freezing water. -- Faith 76: Atheism in Russia: Attends an Atheist discussion meeting in Moscow. -- Faith 77: Hare Krishna: Witnesses Hare Krishna procession in Moscow. -- Faith 78: Buddhism in Kalmykia: Witnesses Kalmyk Buddhist meditation at the Syakyusn-Syume Temple in Elista, Republic of Kalmykia, Russian Federation. Also visits an apartment built above the temple intended for a visit by the Dalai Lama. -- Faith 79: Benedictine monks: Attends Vespers at San Benedetto's Monastery, Subiaco, Italy. -- Faith 80: Damanhur: Visit to the Damanhur Community, Baldissero Canavese, near Torino, Italy. [Info from Wikipedia entry]

This episode: Pete's exploration of world faiths takes a bizarre turn in Latin America. He smokes cigars with Saint Death in Mexico, ventures deep into a Bolivian mine to meet a terrifying god of the underworld and takes a mind-expanding natural hallucinogen with a New Age community in the forests of Brazil. In this episode Pete discovers how the centuries-old dominance of the Catholic Church has been challenged by a huge explosion of new religions and the re-emergence of dormant practices from the past. His search to understand the diverse spiritualities of the New World proves to be a testing experience. Pete encounters the radical methods of an influential Pentecostal preacher in one of Rio de Janeiro's most notorious prisons, and has to hold his nerve when the minister tries to exorcise Pete's demons. He travels to the shores of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and dances to the top of a sacred hill with local Shaman as part of an annual llama sacrifice. In Brasilia he witnesses the strange pageantry of a UFO worshipping cult, where a mediumistic reading gets out of control and dark forces seem to be brought down from the spirit world. Faith 61: Roman Catholicism in Mexico: Attends Midnight Mass at the basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City, Mexico -- Faith 62: Roman Catholic Church: Witnesses prayers to Santa Muerte, Barrio de Tepito, Mexico City. Also sees devotee of Santa Muerte being tattooed. -- Faith 63: El Tio: Witnesses offerings to a mine god at Cerro Rico mine, Potosi, Bolivia -- Faith 64: Pachamama: Witnesses llama sacrifice on hill above Sampaya, Bolivia -- Faith 65: Roman Catholic Church: Automobile blessing outside the basilica of the Virgen de la Candelaria, Copacabana, Bolivia -- Faith 66: Pentecostalism: Cleansing and exorcism of prisoners at Benfica detention centre, Leopoldina, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by Assemblies of God minister. Minister later exorcises Owen-Jones in attempt to stop him smoking. -- Faith 67: Candomblé: Witnesses Samba Day celebrations and orixa possession -- Faith 68: Temple of Goodwill. Meditation at a pyramid shaped temple in Brasilia -- Faith 69: Valley of Dawn: Takes part in the Vale do Amanhecer ritual, a spirit reading, at location near Planaltina, Brazil which proves to be a nerve-wrecking experience. -- Faith 70: Santo Daime: Takes part in Ayahuasca service where participants drink powerful substance that is said to induce a higher state of consciousness and reveal aspects of an individual's inner divine self. Location: Ceu do Mapia, State of Acre, Brazil [Info from Wikipedia entry]

After examining 49 faiths, Pete Owen Jones journeys from the Nepalese Himalayas to the south of India to make sense of the mystery of Indian religions, including the transmigration of the soul, karma, the pantheon of gods and the high regard for gurus. Pete visits a Tibetan Buddhist monastery high in the mountains. In Calcutta, he takes part in the colourful Durga Puja festival and meets the Agori who live amongst the dead. He then travels to the deserts of Rajastan, where he finds Hindu sects ready to walk on fire or even pay the ultimate price for their gurus. In Mumbai, Pete attends a Zoroastrian marriage and explores why one of the world's oldest religions is in danger of disappearing. He discovers how Sikhism had a violent birth when he attends the 300th anniversary of its greatest guru's death, and then journeys south to learn about the remarkable faith of Jainism, which renounces violence against every living creature. Finally Pete spends Diwali in a tiny village at a dung-slinging festival - with inevitable results. Faith 50: Tibetan Buddhism Witnesses a tara ritual at Kutsab Ternga monastery, near Jomsom, Mustang district, Nepal. -- Faith 51: Hinduism: Muktinath Walks through 108 waterspouts at the Stupa of Muktinath, near Jomsom, Mustang district, Nepal. -- Faith 52: Hindu/Buddhist: Child blessing. Attends a child blessing in a house in Kathmandu, Nepal. -- Faith 53: Hinduism: The Durga Puja festival. Witnesses the Durga Puja festival in Calcutta, India. -- Faith 54: Hinduism: Aghoris Meets an aghori in Tarapith, West Bengal, India. -- Faith 55: The Bishnoi Visits The Bishnoi and discusses their belief system in Rajasthan, India -- Faith 56: The Nath Firewalkers Witnesses Fire walking at Purnima in Rajasthan, India. -- Faith 57: Zoroastrianism Attends a Parsi wedding at the Parsi Fire Temple, Mumbai, India. -- Faith 58: Sikhism Attends the 300th anniversary of the consecration of the Guru Granth Sahib at Nanded, Maharashtra, India. -- Faith 59: Jainism Witnesses celebrations at the monolithic statue of Lord Gomateshwara, Shravanabelagola, Hassan district, India and here meets a Jain wandering nun, which proves to be a moving experience. -- Faith 60: Hinduism: Gorehabba ritual. Takes part in the Gorehabba ritual during Diwali at Gummatapura, a village on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, southern India.

With obesity and weight-related health problems rising at an alarming pace in developed countries, thousands are looking to religion to help them lose weight. The evangelical Christian weight-loss corporation 'Weigh Down Workshop' has 30,000 classes in the USA and now there are dozens of branches opening in the UK. Everyman follows the stories of two women looking to God to help them lose weight, and the American organisation that can help them - for a fee - to slim for Him.

It takes a certain kind of obsession to make pinot noir wine. Known as the heartbreak grape, pinot noir is very particular, and only flourishes in a few locations around the world. So when a few passionate - some thought foolhardy - New Zealanders planted pinot noir in Central Otago, in the deep south of New Zealand, it seemed an enterprise destined for failure. Yet the best can come from the most unlikely of places. Today the rocky slopes and thyme-filled valleys of Central Otago make up the fastest growing wine region in the world. This evocative film explores the challenges of chasing pinot noir perfection, finds out why Central Otago pinot noir is unique, and tells the remarkable story behind the one of the most elusive wines in the world.

For Muslims everywhere, the ultimate goal is to make the Hajj at least once during their lifetime. This spiritual journey is the basic premise of an entire religion and sees impoverished African Muslims mixing with their incredibly wealthy Western counterparts. This documentary follows some of the 20,000 Britons who make the journey to Mecca, unravelling the mysterious aura that surrounds this remarkable event. This documentary combines the backdrop of Mecca with interviews to provide a previously undocumented view of Islam.

This BBC Channel 4 documentary shows how the experiences of five lesbian and gay Muslims in Britain challenge the heterosexual bias in Muslim communities and illustrate the diversity within Islam. There are diverse perspectives on homosexuality amongst Muslims, ranging from condemnation through to the Muslim Canadian Congress's welcome for legislation redefining marriage to include same-sex partners. Some 200 lesbian and gay Muslims were contacted by the programme makers but only a handful were willing to be interviewed, and most of those insisted on keeping their identities hidden. Only one was prepared to show his face and give his true name. The interviewees speak of their commitment to and belief in Islam, though instead of having their beliefs supported by their community and family, they face being ostracised. 'Shakir' and his parents find it easier to accept lesbianism than gay men's homosexuality. 'Farah' contemplates going back into the closet, to lie about her sexuality to ease the tension in her relationship with her parents.

The changes in the brain during the growth and development of a baby into an adult are explored. Susan Greenfield looks at how little of the fine structure of our brains is predetermined at birth, how the connections between nerves are constantly changing in response to what we encounter in the outside world. She explains her view that learning, memory and even the process of becoming a unique individual, should all be seen as a restless brain adapting minute by minute to the environment it encounters. Life is about how the world leaves its mark on us.

In this film, acclaimed documentary maker Jane Treays enters the worlds of children on the edge of society, examining how they cope when their lives are shaped by extreme circumstances. Young Carers examines the situation in the UK where children as young as eight are asked to act as grown-ups, taking care of relatives who are unable to look after themselves. This challenging film follows children seeking to manage their parents' physical and mental health problems, losing their childhood as they do.

This documentary offers a sweeping look at China's recent past and its future as the great country prepares to enter the 21st century. The filmmaker Peter Kauffman explains that the reason he made the film was due to an excited phone call from Xiozhen Jiang, his longtime friend and daughter of renowned Chinese screen actress Bai Yang. During the call she told Kauffman that China had turned into "the wildest place on Earth." Intrigued, Kaufman and his father, distinguished filmmaker Philip Kaufman, journeyed to China and made this film. The film's scope addresses the country's social, political, and economic history leading up to 1989 and the Tiananmen Square massacre. Special attention is paid to the dilemmas facing the millions of residents who are wheeling and dealing amidst new freedoms and a burgeoning economy leading to problems such as homeless itinerant workers, corrupt officials, gangsterism and prostitution.

A series profiling some of the remarkable women and men who had the greatest influence on the last century.

This documentary film follows ten Midwestern teenagers as they attend the first overnight Bible Camp for gay Christian youths. For these six boys and four girls, it’s just as hard to come out as Christian as it is to come out as gay. They’re caught in the battle between religion, politics and sexuality that’s raging in the United States today. These kids are outsiders – their straight classmates ostracize them and their churches reject them. But like all teens, they yearn to feel at home, somewhere. Struggling to find a way to be true to both their spirituality and their sexual identity, these teens come to camp hoping to finally find a place of acceptance.

Meet the scientific prophets who claim we are on the verge of creating a new type of human - a human v.2.0, in this BBC Horizon documentary. It’s predicted that by 2029 computer intelligence will equal the power of the human brain, a point of convergence referred to as the Singularity. Some believe this will revolutionize humanity - we will be able to download our minds to computers extending our lives indefinitely. Others fear this will lead to oblivion by giving rise to destructive ultra intelligent machines.

In July 2005, filmmaker Scott Hicks started shooting a documentary about the composer Philip Glass to celebrate his 70th anniversary in 2007. Over the next 18 months, Scott followed Philip across three continents - from his annual ride on the Coney Island 'Cyclone' roller coaster, to the world premiere of his new opera in Germany and in performance with a didgeridoo virtuoso in Australia. Allowed unprecedented access to Glass' working process, family life, spiritual teachers and long time collaborators, Hicks gives us a unique glimpse behind the curtain into the life of a surprising and complex man. 'GLASS: a portrait of Philip in twelve parts' is a remarkable mosaic portrait of one of the greatest - and at times controversial - artists of this or any era.

One of the most influential composers of the 20th century is profiled and his music re-interpreted by contemporary musicians and commentators. Born in Germany, Weill came to the US in 1935. Composer of the Threepenny Opera, Mahagonny, Lady in the Dark, Street Scene and many other innovative works for the theater. His extensive list of works also includes well-known songs and instrumental music, preserved on innumerable recordings.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids are often bright and able, but for some reason unable to concentrate. The repercussions, for all involved, can be devastating. The current, controversial treatment, Ritalin, is a powerful amphetamine. This sensitive, uplifting documentary shows what it is really like to live with ADHD, and investigates the new science that is giving hope to its victims. To some doctors, ADHD is merely an excuse for bad parenting. They blame too much television, poor diet and parents who just don't bother. Try telling that to the Fischer family. Two of the children have ADHD, as does Charlotte, their Mum. Charlotte's life was blighted by years of people refusing to believe anything was wrong with her. It led to failure at school and drug abuse. But now she is determined to make sure that what happened to her won't happen to her kids. Follow the Fischer family as they cope with these pressures, and are helped to make sense of the condition by a team of paediatricians and child psychologists. This film shows that ADHD need not be a disaster for its victims. One of the key revelations is that strong, early intervention can transform these children. And what effect does the powerful drug, Ritalin, have on the children? A powerful amphetamine, it would make most people manic, but actually calms ADHD kids down. Ritalin is highly controversial, with allegations that some doctors subscribe it to children whom many would regard as simply annoying. But parents of true ADHD kids say it gives them a crucial window of opportunity in which a child can learn how to behave, build relationships and lay the foundations of a normal life. Other available drug treatments are also explored. The cameras also follow another family going through the traumatic, shocking process of diagnosis and captures the gradual transformation of their lives as science, in the form of new treatments, comes to their aid. Full of love, tears and laughter, this is ultimately an uplifting tale of real people triumphing over tough situations. The fact is that the Fischers are a happy family. They may be different but, in their words, "That's your problem, not ours".

Al Gore’s Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth has done a lot to raise the international awareness of the environmental issue of global warming. But where do things stand today? The Antarctica Challenge is a documentary that goes to the source of the climate change crisis: Antarctica. Here it explores first-hand the environmental challenges facing that frozen continent and, by extension, the world.

Sufi Soul: The Mystic Music of Islam, follows William Dalrymple on a personal journey into the mystical and musical side of Islam as he charts the traditions of Sufi music in Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, India and Morocco. Taking many different forms across the Islamic world - from the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey to the Qawwali music of Pakistan or the latest Grammy-winning CD by Youssou N'Dour - Sufism has produced some of the world's most spectacular and inspirational music celebrated by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Sufi Soul shows the music in its authentic, live setting in Sufi shrines and meeting places across the Islamic world, but also how it's a part of popular culture. In Pakistan it features the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, his nephew Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Abida Parveen, the extraordinary Sufi troubadour Sain Zahoor and Pakistan's most popular pop group Junoon. In Turkey there's ney player Kudsi Erguner, Whirling Dervishes from Istanbul and the club-Sufi Mercan Dede.

Every year, foreign factory trawlers with foreign crews, Korean, Russian or Polish, operate in New Zealand waters, chartered by New Zealand companies to catch their Deep-sea Quota, depriving New Zealand crews and processing workers of much needed jobs, and our economy of revenue. New Zealand has the 4th largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world (within a 200 mile boundary line around our country) measuring 4.4 million square kilometres, controlled by our government. Within that zone, 130 fish species are commercially caught every year, with a quota value of $3.8 billion and an export value of $1.5 billion and yet New Zealanders are not reaping due rewards. Foreign fishing boats and their foreign crews have been fishing in New Zealand waters since the early 1950's. These vessels are chartered by New Zealand companies to catch their quota for them. Some of our largest fishing companies use them extensively as well as individual New Zealanders who own massive quota holdings, this despite the fact that since 1996, New Zealand has had the capacity to catch all its own fish without the need to use foreign trawlers, except for the harvesting of squid. Foreign fishing boats catch 45% of all Deep-sea fish, and over 50% of all fish caught in New Zealand waters are processed overseas, mainly in Thailand and China. Profit, not employment has been the priority in managing a resource that all New Zealanders should benefit from. This documentary explains how foreign boats can deliberately overfish certain species, knowing that the fine can often be less than the market price for that fish. Those most often hit by this practice are the local fishermen. If a fish stocks numbers reduce, the Ministry of Fisheries reduces the quota that can be caught. What often happens is that companies chartering foreign boats will then take remaining quota away from New Zealand fishermen and add it to existing quota for foreign boats, making sure that these boats stay financially viable for the whole year. The problem is that NZ fishermen now have a lot less fish to catch, reduced income with increasing costs, and are forced to either sell their boat and downsize, or get out of the industry altogether - a tough call when you've spent all your life at sea. No credits.

Film maker, Fran Landsman, spent 11 weeks at Moorlands Infant School in Bath to make this highly original film revealing the dramas that mark these first crucial weeks for the four year old new entrants.

The Road to Jerusalem tells the life and times of James K. Baxter, using his own words in poetry and prose, given context by reminiscence from family, close friends and confidants. And all the words are supported and further illuminated by the dense stream of visual imagery running parallel. Baxter's childhood in Brighton, painful adolescence in Dunedin, and then his steady rise in fame as a poet are all documented, as it were, from the inside. His split with his family and later elevation to the status of resident guru in the commune at Jerusalem are all presented in intimate and often painful detail.

Allan Wilson was the Pukekohe-raised scientist who revolutionised the study of evolutionary biology. Inspired by birds, he developed molecular approaches to 'clock' evolutionary change, and raised the hypothesis that humans evolved from one 'Eve' in Africa about 200,000 years ago. He is the only New Zealander to win a pretigious US MacArthur “genius” Award. The Listener called the film, a "shrewd insight into the man himself: the quintessential pioneering expat Kiwi individualist." It was made in partnership with UC Berkeley where Wilson was based for 35 years.

This groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged from the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring acclaimed author Dr. Jack Shaheen, the film explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs - from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-wielding "terrorists" - along the way offering devastating insights into the origin of these stereotypic images, their development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much today. Shaheen shows how the persistence of these images over time has served to naturalize prejudicial attitudes toward Arabs and Arab culture, in the process reinforcing a narrow view of individual Arabs and the effects of specific US domestic and international policies on their lives. By inspiring critical thinking about the social, political, and basic human consequences of leaving these Hollywood caricatures unexamined, the film challenges viewers to recognize the urgent need for counter-narratives that do justice to the diversity and humanity of Arab people and the reality and richness of Arab history and culture.

Surfing Samoa focusses on the indigenous surfing cultures of the South Pacific. Narrated by NZ Samoan hip hop musician King Kapisi.

Faster is an electrifying tribute to the white-knuckle world of the Motorcycle Grand Prix - the fastest sport on two wheels - where only the most audacious competitors race at speeds over 200mph and crash at over 100mph. Narrated by actor and motobike fan Ewan McGregor, Faster chases two seasons’ worth of the world championship, featuring revealing interviews with riders, mechanics, doctors, commentators and fans.

This part follows the trial and conviction of Russia's richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Khodorkovsky's grinning face was famously beamed across the world from behind the bars of the court's cage, and this episode reveals the tactics that Putin used to suppress the oil baron and separate him from his company and wealth.

Dispatches exposes the new surge in violence inflicted on the Burmese people by their own regime. Enslaved by a brutal military dictatorship which wields absolute power, Burma is a secretive state where suppression reigns and dissent is not tolerated. Journalist Evan Williams, who is banned from entering the country after reporting on Burma for more than 10 years, goes undercover to investigate the mass ethnic cleansing, forced labour and vicious clamping down of political opposition which characterise the dictatorship.

As the result of a law passed by former state governor George W Bush, teenagers in Lubbock, Texas, are expected to take a 'purity pledge', vowing to remain virgins until their wedding nights. This documentary asks whether the town's youngsters find it easy to stick to their promise and if, by putting the emphasis on abstinence rather than sex education, the pledge fosters a climate of fear and misinformation.

Tito, an eleven-year-old boy from Bangalore, south India, is severely autistic, but he is deeply philosophical, with a profound comprehension of his own condition. Insightful and often humorous, he reveals exactly what it means to be autistic, and in doing so challenges the orthodox thinking about autism. The British Autistic Society flew Tito, accompanied by his mother, Somo, to London for assessment. Many have doubted his abilities and have even suggested that he is at the centre of an elaborate hoax. What will the experts really think? Will his uncontrollable behaviour let him down?

This documentary looks at the new right ideology that transformed public education in the 80s and 90s and the schism it caused with teachers. Interviews with parents, teachers and unionists are cut together with archive footage of treasury officials and politicians advocating that schools be run as businesses. There are vexed board of trustees' meetings, an infamous deal between Avondale College and Pepsi, and teachers take their opposition from the classroom to the streets. The film is the third in Alister Barry's series critical of neo-liberal reform in NZ.

Broadcast a year before the Litvinenko murder, this fascinating series lifted the lid on the struggle that still continues between Putin, and his adversaries, the Russian Oligarchs. The first part follows exile and Litvinenko associate Boris Berezovsky as he campaigns to fight Putin in the Media and along Russia's borders. Under threat of arrest Berezovsky travels to revolutionary Ukraine for the campaign to elect Yuschenko.

Final part in the formidable series on Putin's fight with the oligarchs. Shot a year before the murder of Litvinenko, this film examines Putin's fight with the only serious rival for the presidency,Yuri Luzhkov. The crew follow Luzhkov, the renegade billionnaire Mayor of Moscow as he takes the fight to Putin showing both the ruthless methods in which Putin crushes his opposition and the extreme corruption that exist at the highest levels of Russian government.

A fierce explorer and archaeologist, lyrical writer and cunning politician, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) spent much of her life traveling throughout present-day Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan & Israel.

Marguerite Harrison (1879 - 1967) was a reporter, spy, film maker, and translator who was one of the four founding members of the Society of Woman Geographers. Harrison spied for the United States in Russia and Japan, arriving in Russia in 1920 as an Associated Press correspondent. She assessed Bolshevik economic strengths and weakness and assisted American political prisoners in Russia. She was held captive in Lubyanka, the infamous Russian prison, for ten weeks. While there she contracted tuberculosis and due to pressure from her influential contacts she was eventually set free in exchange for food and other aid to Russia.

Follows Bill Manhire, Chris Orsman and Nigel Brown, 3 New Zealand artists and writers on a visit to Antarctica to portray the continent in art and poetry. While there they produced a limited edition of Homelight : an Antarctic miscellany.

Aviator Amelia Earhart was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross which she was awarded as the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines an organization for female pilots. During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life career and disappearance continues to this day.

Eight ordinary people are given a million dollars, a fortnight of intensive training and two months to run their own hedge fund. Can they make a killing? The experiment reveals the inner workings of a City trading floor. The money is supplied by hedge fund manager Lex van Dam: he wants to see if ordinary people can beat the professionals, and he expects a return on his investment too. Yet no-one foresees the financial crisis that lies ahead. The traders were selected in spring 2008, before the US credit crisis gathered pace. The successful candidates were chosen, trained and dispatched to their specially created trading room in the heart of the Square Mile. Among them are an environmentalist, a soldier, a boxing promoter, an entrepreneur, a retired IT consultant, a vet, a student and a shopkeeper. As the novices learn the dark art of trading stocks and shares, the financial markets start to buckle. Making money takes second place to basic survival as the brutal realities of global economics take their toll on the traders. How do they cope? Will they secure themselves a bonus, or walk away with nothing?

In 1966, General Motors, the most powerful corporation in the world, sent private investigators to dig up dirt on an obscure thirty-two year old public interest lawyer named Ralph Nader, who had written a book critical of one of their cars, the Corvair. The scandal that ensued after the smear campaign was revealed launched Ralph Nader into national prominence and established him as one of the most admired Americans and the leader of the modern Consumer Movement. Over the next thirty years and without ever holding public office, Nader built a legislative record that is the rival of any contemporary president. Many things we take for granted including seat belts, airbags, product labeling, no nukes, even the free ticket you get after being bumped from an overbooked flight are largely due to the efforts of Ralph Nader and his citizen groups. Yet today, when most people hear the name "Ralph Nader" they think of the man who gave the country George W. Bush. As a result, after sustaining his popularity and effectiveness over an unprecedented amount of time, he has become a pariah even among former friends and allies. How did this happen? Is he really to blame for George W. Bush? Who has stuck by him and who has abandoned him? Has our democracy become a consumer fraud? After being so right for so many years, how did he seem to go so wrong?

Eight ordinary people are given a million dollars, a fortnight of intensive training and two months to run their own hedge fund. Can they make a killing? The experiment reveals the inner workings of a City trading floor. The money is supplied by hedge fund manager Lex van Dam: he wants to see if ordinary people can beat the professionals, and he expects a return on his investment too. Yet no-one foresees the financial crisis that lies ahead. The traders were selected in spring 2008, before the US credit crisis gathered pace. The successful candidates were chosen, trained and dispatched to their specially created trading room in the heart of the Square Mile. Among them are an environmentalist, a soldier, a boxing promoter, an entrepreneur, a retired IT consultant, a vet, a student and a shopkeeper. As the novices learn the dark art of trading stocks and shares, the financial markets start to buckle. Making money takes second place to basic survival as the brutal realities of global economics take their toll on the traders. How do they cope? Will they secure themselves a bonus, or walk away with nothing?

Eight ordinary people are given a million dollars, a fortnight of intensive training and two months to run their own hedge fund. Can they make a killing? The experiment reveals the inner workings of a City trading floor. The money is supplied by hedge fund manager Lex van Dam: he wants to see if ordinary people can beat the professionals, and he expects a return on his investment too. Yet no-one foresees the financial crisis that lies ahead. The traders were selected in spring 2008, before the US credit crisis gathered pace. The successful candidates were chosen, trained and dispatched to their specially created trading room in the heart of the Square Mile. Among them are an environmentalist, a soldier, a boxing promoter, an entrepreneur, a retired IT consultant, a vet, a student and a shopkeeper. As the novices learn the dark art of trading stocks and shares, the financial markets start to buckle. Making money takes second place to basic survival as the brutal realities of global economics take their toll on the traders. How do they cope? Will they secure themselves a bonus, or walk away with nothing?

Julien Temple's new film is a vivid evocation of an apocalyptic vision: a slow-motion Katrina that has had many more victims. Detroit was once America's fourth largest city. Built by the car for the car, with its groundbreaking suburbs, freeways and shopping centres, it was the embodiment of the American dream. But its intense race riots brought the army into the city. With violent union struggles against the fierce resistance of Henry Ford and the Big Three, it was also the scene of American nightmares. Now it is truly a dystopic post-industrial city, in which 40 per cent of the land in the centre is returning to prairie. Greenery grows up through abandoned office blocks, houses and collapsing car plants, and swallows up street lights. Police stations and post offices have been left with papers on the desks like the Marie Celeste. There is no more rush hour on what were the first freeways in America. Crime, vandalism, arson and dog fighting are the main activities in once the largest building in North America. But it's also a source of hope. Streets are being turned to art. Farming is coming back to the centre of the city. Young people are flocking to help. The burgeoning urban agricultural movement is the fastest growing movement in the US. Detroit leads the way again but in a very different direction.

One immediately associates the name Boeing with the dynamic world of aviation, enormous aircraft, global air traffic, as well as success and economic power. Yet hardly anyone realises that the mighty “global player” was once a family-owned business, only very few people know that the family originally came from Germany. The film “William Edward Boeing – Ace of Aircraft” visits original sites where you can still feel the Boeing story to this very day. It delves into the archives and finds surprising new information about the family history, and includes interviews with the son of the company founder William Boeing. Detailed re-enactments, filmed in the USA with the help of a German-American team, revisit the days long gone by days of the late 19th and early 20th century in touching scenes. The result is an exciting family portrait, the gripping story of an immigrant family and an astounding documentary about an entrepreneur – the history of the Boeings and Boeing whose family ties span the Atlantic.

This episode: he travels to throughout Australasia to find out how tribal faiths have survived into the 21st Century. He goes into the Australian outback in search of the meaning of Aboriginal Dreaming; to Indonesia for the elaborate funeral of a woman who died 20 years ago; to Sydney to witness the survival of ancient persecuted faiths like the Iraqi Mandeans and Witchcraft, and to the remote volcanic islands of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ring of Fire to unravel the mystery of the Cargo Cult. He also witnesses the culmination of the nine-day Pulilan Carabao festival and a fertility festival that's thriving in the Philippines in spite of attempts to ban it. Faith 1: Islam and Spirit Worship: Attends a sword-stabbing ritual performed by the Bugis people of Sulawesi, Indonesia. -- Faith 2: Christianity and Ancestor worship – Attends a funeral rite performed by the Tana Toraja people of Sulawesi, Indonesia and reflects on their relationship with the dead. -- Faith 3: Catholic Carabao festival: Visits the Carabao festival of Pulilan, Bulacan, Philippines in honour of the town's patron saint, San Isidro Labrador. -- Faith 4: Catholic fertility ritual: Attends the Obando Fertility Rites in Obando, Bulacan, Philippines, a pagan fertility festival now held in reverence to three Catholic saints. Locals dance during the festival for fertility, out of tradition for past successful dances, and just to be a part of the festival. A priest delivers prayers before directing a large dance in the Church. Peter reflects on the cross-fertilization between Catholicism and animism and suggests that instead of the Catholics simply incorporating the dance into a prayer to the saints the festival may instead be a mutual coupling of fertility and creation. -- Faith 5: Aboriginal Dreaming: Visits Alice Springs to meet with the Indigenous Australian people, the Aborigines, to witness a baby smoking ritual. Peter accompanies a group of locals on a trip to find the bush used in the ritual. A baby is then held in a small sand pit containing smoldering leaves for a few seconds at a time. A local tells him that the ritual is done so that the baby will be healthy and strong. Peter hoped to witness some of the Aboriginal Dreaming rituals, however, a local tells him that baby smoking is not related to Dreamtime. Peter reflects that the ritual seems to have lost its meaning as the locals are sparse in their explanation of the spiritual aspects of the event. The women of the group then removes their shirts and paints their chest and arms. With feathers in their hair, they dance around a fire. The women tell Peter they are Christian and do not know of the old Aboriginal religion. -- Faith 6: The Iraqi Mandaeans: Attends a regular baptism service inspired by John the Baptist and performed by the persecuted Mandaeans of Iraq in a park in Sydney, Australia. -- Faith 7: Urban witchcraft: Visits a group of witches who have established their coven, led by Tim Hartridge, within Sydney, Australia. -- Faith 8: Indigenous Kastom: Meets practitioners of the tribal faith of Kastomism on the South Pacific island of Tanna, Vanuatu. -- Faith 9: John Frum cult – Meets practitioners of the new religion of John Frum of Tanna, inspired by the American presence on the island after the World War II. -- Faith 10: Prophet Fred and Unity: Witnesses the religion of Unity and interviews their prophet, Fred from Tanna and Killian. [Info from Wikipedia entry]